Conviction Upheld for Man Who Took Daughter to Evade COVID Vaccine, Sask. Court Rules

Saskatchewan’s top court has dismissed the appeal of a man found guilty of kidnapping his then-7-year-old daughter in what the father described as an attempt to prevent her from receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.

The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal delivered its unanimous ruling on May 19, dismissing Michael Gordon Jackson’s appeals of his parental abduction conviction and his 12-month custodial sentence.

The three-judge panel issued its decision after considering arguments in Regina last month.

A jury convicted Michael Gordon Jackson of parental child abduction after a trial in Regina Court of King’s Bench in 2024. He was handed a one-year jail sentence that was completely offset by the 531 days he had already spent in custody, as well as a two-year probation order.

The probation terms require Jackson to have no contact with his daughter or ex-wife and to serve 100 hours of community service.

The charge was filed after Jackson collected his 7-year-old daughter from school in November 2021. He was expected to bring the girl back to her mother five days later according to their custody arrangement, but failed to do so.

The child was returned to her mother after Jackson was arrested in Vernon, B.C., more than three months later for breaching the custody agreement. The child mainly lived with her mother prior to the incident.

He was subsequently charged with one count of abduction in contravention of a custody or parenting order.

Jackson testified at trial that he kept his daughter because he was concerned the child’s mother would have her vaccinated. A  prior ruling in a family law trial had granted the mother final decision-making power on health issues, court documents show.

Jackson maintained at his criminal trial that he took his daughter because he felt his ex-wife was ignoring his concerns about the COVID-19 vaccine and he believed there was no alternative if he wanted to prevent “imminent harm” to the girl, according to court documents. He also questioned the fairness of the courts and said he believed the system to be corrupt.

The presiding judge determined that the argument lacked an “air of reality” and opted against presenting it to the jury, which found the 55-year-old from Carievale, Sask., guilty in April 2024.

The appellate court supported the trial judge’s ruling.

Justice Jerome Tholl stated in the court’s ruling that the trial judge did not err in considering Jackson’s motivations as mitigating factors. Justices Naheed Bardai and Keith Kilback concurred.

“A reasonable person would not conclude that a person dissatisfied with a ruling of the court can simply take matters into their own hands and act in contravention of such ruling,” Tholl wrote.

Tholl indicated that because the appeal was found to be lacking on that basis, the appeal court did not need to examine the topic of “imminent harm.” 

The three-judge panel also rejected Jackson’s appeal concerning his sentence. 

Jackson contended the trial judge failed to consider a previous jail term he served for contempt, but the appellate court said his argument was flawed on multiple fronts. The ruling noted that Jackson did not address the matter during the sentencing phase, and the contempt proceedings were associated with separate family court orders.

Jackson still has the option of appealing his sentence to the Supreme Court of Canada.